The hull shuddered.
It started as a faint vibration, like distant thunder, then rose into a low, metallic groan. Bolts trembled, loose panels rattled, and the deck under their boots thrummed with pressure.
Marquez gripped the console. "Something's pushing against the ship."
Okafor spun toward the airlock, eyes wide. "Not possible. Atmosphere's too thin out there. What could—"
A sharp hiss cut him off. White vapor curled from the seams of the port-side hatch. Not air escaping, but something seeping in.
---
The Arrival
The vapor coiled into strands, weaving themselves into long, skeletal fingers that pressed against the inner hatch. Then came the sound—like glass cracking underwater.
Daniel staggered back, the crystal in his chest burning against his ribs. "They're here."
The hatch bulged inward. Shadows bled through the steel, dripping like ink on paper, reforming into vague human outlines. Their faces were smooth voids, yet somehow… watching.
Okafor's voice cracked. "They're inside. Oh God, they're inside."
Hayes snapped his rifle to ready position, though every instinct screamed it would be useless. "Back! All of you!"
---
The Test
The shadows didn't attack. They hovered, drifting across the control room like smoke in water, their edges curling and unraveling. Wherever they passed, lights flickered, and screens filled with alien glyphs.
One drifted near Daniel. The crystal pulsed in answer, its rhythm syncing with the being's flicker.
Daniel whispered, trembling, "It knows me."
The shadow stopped, inches from his helmet. Then it raised an arm—slow, deliberate—and pressed a finger of darkness against the glass of his visor.
The crystal erupted with heat.
---
The Message
Every console flared at once. Voices filled their comms, layered and echoing, neither male nor female:
"Chosen… key… unlock…"
Daniel screamed as the crystal seared through him, projecting an image into all their minds. A vision of Mars—not as dust and stone, but as a world alive with towers of light, rivers of fire, and a vast crystal heart at its core. Then the vision collapsed, shattering into a storm of broken voices.
The shadows withdrew as suddenly as they had come, vanishing back through the walls, leaving the crew gasping in the heavy silence.
Only Daniel remained on his knees, clutching his chest.
"They want me," he whispered. "And they're not going to stop."